Clark Castillo
Hist 299 2/16/09
Petrie, Sir Charles, Bt., The Jacobite Movement; The Last Movement 1716-1807.
“London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1950
Sir Charles Petrie writes his book simply as a type of fact regurgitation. He goes thru and tells the story as plainly, and embellishment free as he can. His slight bias is given away in the pages before the book actually begins though, in his brief introduction beginning with the phrase “My thanks are due to His Majesty the King”. Sir Petrie tends to use more dominant wording when speaking of British Policy’s, and use more Passive wording and terminology when discussing the Stewart Family, and Jacobites in General. He tells the stories of the Jacobite Rebellions in a very dry, and straightforward manner, and uses quotations from primary sources quite often. Sir Petrie also employs numerous original paintings of the figures he speaks of, and places them strategically throughout the book.
Dupoy, R. Ernest and Dupoy Trevor N., The Encyclopedia of Military History; from 3500 B.C. to present. New York: Harper& Rowe Publishers, 1977
The Encyclopedia of Military History is simply that. All the information derived
from this book is strictly numerical, and summarized. In fact this annotated summary will most likely be nearly as long as the entry on the whole of the 1745 revolution. Instead of telling a story, like Sir Petrie, the Dupoy’s simply state the dates, and state about four sentences to summarize each battle. It is the bare bones of history, and can not be cut down anymore. There is no room for any real bias effect.
Speck, W.A.. The Butcher; The Duke of Cumberland and the Suppression of the
45. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher, 1981.
W.A. Speck takes a different look on the history of the Jacobites than the Dupoys and Sir Petrie. While Sir Petrie wrote a simple retelling of history, Speck decided to try to explain the revolution and it’s effects. He approaches the topic in a cause and effect type of writing. He does not go thru history strictly chronologically, instead he takes sections of the 1745 revolution, and looks at each of them chronologically. This allows a much more in depth look at the ’45, than a simple retelling of events. It can take a longer time to completely understand the full picture, but once you get thru it, you have a much better
comprehension of the big picture. This is also leaps and bounds beyond The Encyclopedia of Military History, in giving a full story of the happenings of the ’45. This book is also relatively unbiased, as according to the introduction, the point is to get past the regular stories of the Jacobite rebellion, and explain the exact who, what, when, where, and why, of the ’45.
Mitchison, Rosalind, Lordship to Patronage: Scotland, 1603-1745. London: E. Arnold
1983
Rosalind Mitchison took a similar approach to history to that of W. A. Speck, in which the book is written in several stages. In an effort to cover all topics deemed important by the authors, the book is almost written in a case study type of style. Each chapter focuses on its own topic, and overlaps time wise with the other topics in the book. The main difference between these two authors however is that Mitchison focuses on political ins and outs and socioeconomic topics, Speck took a much more direct approach to the exact happenings of the Military story, somewhat like Sir Petrie. Mitchison is also different from Speck and Sir Petrie, in that he rarely, if ever, quotes primary sources. Instead he summarizes and cuts down the story, much like they Duproys.
Black, Jeremy, Culloden and the ’45. London: Grange Books plc, 1990
Jeremy Black looks at the Story of the ’45 in a chronological order, much as Sir Petrie did; however unlike Sir Petrie he goes farther into what happened behind the scenes as time went on. He didn’t follow the style Mitchison and Speck, in a case study tyoe setup, but instead goes thru in a very straightforward discussion, that doesn’t require rereading to get the whole picture. Instead he shows the picture one step at a time, allowing the reader to slowly get it. HE also employs more photographs, original portraits, and maps, than any other mentioned authors. Some of his visual aides seem slightly superfluous, however a majority of them allow for the reader to have a better comprehension and vision of the ’45.
Maclean, Fitzroy, Highlanders: A History of the Scottish Clans. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1995
Fitzroy Maclean approaches the topic of the highlanders, as if he must tell the whole story form start to finish, without leaving anything out. He does not take a slow, deliberate apce, as most of the authors do, but instead rushes thru history telling a basic storyline, with little fleshed out. He goes in a purely chronological order, but does not go in depth into the “why”s like Black, Sir Petrie, and Speck. Instead, he prefers to give the basic story, much like the Duproy’s Encyclopedia. A majority of the research value in this book is the basic facts and stories, and the amount of them. He does not really discuss many of the reasons behind these stories, but he seems to compensate for this with massive amounts of visual aides, most of which apply directly to his topics.
Plank, Geoffrey Gilbert, Rebellion and Savagery: The Jacobite Rising of 1745 and the
British Empire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006
Geoffrey Gilbert Plank approaches his topic in an entirely different style than those previously mentioned. Instead of dealing with topics that overlapped chronologically, he deals with topics that occur at the exact same time. Instead of looking at them as different topics around the same story, he approaches it as the same story, over, and over. He starts off by looking at a very specific part of history, and then puts it into a broader sense. He repeats the process until the reading is literally looking at the story in a global sense. He doesn’t look at it as simple facts, like the Duproy’s or Maclean, and he doesn’t look at it like many parts to the same story, Like Black, Sir Petrie, and Speck. Instead he puts down the specific details, and then puts them in perspective.
